Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA)

1. General Terms

1.1 -  If any of the following events occur, you will break the Agreement and you will be liable to pay our Fees:

1. 1. You fail to co-operate with us.
   2. You fail to attend any pre-arranged appointment including Court hearings which we reasonably request you to attend.
   3. You fail to give us necessary instructions when we ask for them; or;
   4. You withdraw your instructions from us.

1.2 -  In the event of your death, your claim can survive subject to your Personal Representative agreeing to instructing us under the terms of a new Conditional Fee Agreement.

1.3 - If your Personal Representatives do not provide such instructions, this Agreement will be deemed terminated pursuant to 1.1 above and we may seek to recover of our Basic Charges (Fees) and Disbursements (expenses) up to the date of your death from your estate.

2. If I win, how much will I pay?

If you win your claim, you pay our Basic Charges + VAT (Fees) and our Disbursements (expenses). The amount of these is not based on or limited by the damages (compensation). You can claim part or all our Basic Charges + vat (Fees) and our Disbursements (expenses) but not our Success Fee or any insurance premium from your opponent.

It may be that your opponent makes a Part 36 offer or payment which you reject on our advice and your claim for damages (compensation) goes ahead to trial where you recover damages (compensation) that are less than that offer or payment. We refer to the “paying Us” section in the CFA document to establish Charges and Disbursements (Fees/costs/expenses) we will be seeking for the work done after we received notice of the offer or payment.

1. 1. If you receive interim damages (not final damages), we may require you to pay our Disbursements at that point as well as a reasonable amount for our future
   2. If you win overall but, on the way lose an interim hearing (not final hearing), you may be required to pay your opponent’s Basic Charges + vat (Fees) of that hearing.
   3. If on the way to winning or losing you are awarded any costs, by agreement or Court Order, then we are entitled to payment of those Basic Charges (Fees)/costs, together with a Success Fee on those Charges if you win overall.

3. If I lose, how much will I pay?

If you lose, you pay your opponent’s Charges and Disbursements, unless these are insured under a Legal Expense Policy of Insurance (LEI). Remember if you lose you will not have to pay our Charges, but you may have to pay our Disbursements. Please check for LEI in any policies of insurance attached to Home & Building Insurance, Car Insurance or Credit Card Agreements as well as any Trade Union Membership. You may be able to take out After-the-Event Insurance to protect you from having to pay the opponents charges and Disbursements as well as any incurred by us.

4. Ending this Agreement

If you end this Agreement before you win or lose, you pay our Basic Charges and Disbursements. If you continue with your case absent our involvement and go on to win, you also pay a Success Fee to us.

If we end this Agreement before you win or lose, we have the right to decide whether you pay our Basic Charges and Disbursements. If you continue with your cases absent our involvement and go on to win, you also pay a Success Fee to us.

We can end this agreement if we hold the view, you are unlikely to win and will require you to pay our Disbursements only.

In addition, you may have to pay any Barristers Fees, if we have instructed one to act on your behalf and they are not acting on a CFA.

5. Our Basic Charges

These are the Fees we charge for work done from the beginning of the Agreement until it ends and are subject to annual review.

6. How do we calculate our Basic Charges?

These Fees are calculated for each hour engaged on your case and the hourly rates are contained within the Terms of Business supplied to you.  These Fees are calculated and charged in units of one tenth of an hour for routine letters, texts, emails, and telephone calls. Letters, emails, and telephone calls that are not routine are charged on a time basis. Our hourly rates are reviewed annually, usually on 1 January each year and we will notify you, in writing, of any change in the rate.

However, we have adopted the policy of using the Guideline Hourly Rates (accepted by the Courts) set by the Civil Justice Council and approved by the Master of the Rolls which are subject to periodic review by the Civil Justice Council.

7. Success Fee

The Success Fee percentage set out in the CFA reflects the following:

1. 1. If you lose, we will not receive our Basic Charges (Fees).
   2. Our assessment of the risks in your case.
   3. If you win, we will not be paid our Basic Charges (Fees) until the end of the case.
   4. Arrangements we have regarding the payment of Disbursements (expenses).
   5. Any other appropriate matters.

8. Value Added Tax

We add VAT, at the prevailing rate (currently 20%), to our charges and Success Fee when the work is completed.

9. Insuring Risks

If you have not been able to identify any suitable policy of insurance attached to your Car and home insurance or credit card agreement or are not a member of a Trade Union, you may protect yourself with an After-the-Event insurance Policy.  This will insure you against having to pay your opponent’s Charges + vat (Fees) and Disbursements + vat (expenses) together with our Disbursements + vat should you lose.  A non-exhaustive set of examples of Fees and Disbursements, are outlined below:

1. 1. Court Fees.
   2. Courier Fees.
   3. Investigator Fees.
   4. Electronic ID and AML Fees.
   5. Experts Fees.
   6. ATE Premium.
   7. Opponents Fees and expenses if you lose.

10. If you win, our costs are dealt with as follows.

a. It is important to remember that you are liable to pay all our Basic Charges, our Disbursements, Success Fee, and any applicable taxes.

b. You can claim part or all our Basic Charges, Disbursements, and applicable taxes from your opponent.

c. If we and your opponent cannot agree the amount of Basic Charges and Disbursements to be recovered, the Court will / may decide how much you can recover. If the amount agreed or allowed by the Court does not cover all our Basic Charges and our Disbursements, then you remain liable to pay the difference.

d. You will not be able to recover the Success Fee from your opponent, that always remains payable by you.

e. You will not be able to recover the Insurance Premium from your opponent, the After-the-Event Insurance Premium always remains payable by you.

f. You agree that after winning, the reasons for setting the Success Fee at the amount stated may be disclosed to the Court and any other person required by the

g. If the Success Fee is to be paid at a lower percentage than is set out in the CFA, the Success Fee percentage will be reduced accordingly unless the Court is satisfied that the full amount is payable.

h. You agree to pay into a designated account any cheque and/or electronic transfer received by you or by us from your opponent and made payable to you. Out of the money you agree to let us take the balance of the Basic Charges, Success Fee, Insurance Premium, our remaining Disbursements and VAT: YOU TAKE THE REST.

i. We are allowed to keep any interest your opponent pays on the Basic Charges, please note that you remain ultimately responsible for paying the Success Fee.

j. If your opponent does not pay any damages (compensation) or Basic Charges owed to you, we have the right to take recovery action in your name to enforce the judgment, Order or The Charges of this action become part of the Basic Charges.

11. Payment for Advocacy

The cost of Advocacy and any other work by us, or by a solicitor agent on our behalf forms part of our Basic Charges. In relation to any Barrister instructed on your behalf, we will engage with you on the individual and their arrangements for payment of their Fees.

12. Second Opinion

If you reject our advice regarding liability and/or causation and/or quantum OR THE VALUE OF ANY OFFERS TO BE MADE OR ACCEPTED you may ask us to obtain a second opinion from a specialist solicitor outside our firm, we will do so BUT YOU MUST PAY THE COSTS OF A SECOND OPINION.